Essay on The Metamorphosis and In the Penal Colony by Kafka

By definition, alienation is considered the state of being in isolation or in separation from a group or activity which one should belong to or be a part of. In his two literary works, The Metamorphosis, and In the Penal Colony, Franz Kafka extensively develops the theme of alienation both by virtue of both internal and physical isolation to the outside word. In his novella, The Metamorphosis, for instance, there is a literal change in the storys protagonist, Gregor Samsas physical form where he converts from a man to an insect. In this regard, this metamorphosis undergone by Gregor is primarily used to develop and also bring light to the theme of alienation, which is one of the main themes of the story. In the short story, In the Penal Colony, on the other hand, the story unfolds around a foreign explorer who visits a topical colony where he witnesses an individual judicial procedure which he finds totally horrifying and barbaric. This being said, this analysis paper seeks to discuss the theme of individual alienation in the two works by Kafka based on the fact that the modern day society demands a certain kind of conformity to its norms and therefore, any individual who does not comply with these criteria, is bound to face alienation.

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To begin with, in The Metamorphosis, Kafka introduces Gregor Samsa as a young and industrious man who by all means dedicates his life to his sister and parents. One day, however, Gregor wakes up, only to find had metamorphosed into a monstrous vermin. Based on this context, Gregors metamorphosis brings about a distinct form of alienation which brings about psychological difference between Gregor and the people around him. According to Kafka, Gregors transformation alienates him both literally and emotionally, from his family members who he was initially overly committed to. Besides, immediately after the transformation, Gregor who spends most of the time in his locked room makes no contact with other people, hence, alienating himself from humanity, as a whole. This is evidenced in the story where Kafka explains that Gregor complicated himself instead on the precaution that he had adopted on his business tips of locking all the doors during the night even at home (pg. 7).

In a similar regard, Kafka ironically develops the theme of isolation in the short story In the Penal Colony. At the very beginning of the short story, an officer who is native in this Penal colony takes an explorer, a condemned prisoner, to see a demonstration of an intensely elaborate machine that serves as a punishment device for the prisoners. This machine is characterized by horrifying tortures which included cutting the description of the crime into the backs of the prisoners. Nonetheless, the first instance of alienation in this particular story is exemplified when a new commander takes over the penal colony, rendering this punishment machine useless. With the alienation of the machine, it goes into disuse, causing it to breakdown unrepaired and finally forgotten by the people (Kafka).

Similarly, in the novella, The Metamorphosis, although Gregor is alienated from the human race by his metamorphosis, throughout the course of the story, Kafka makes us learn that Gregors feeling of estrangement was actually far reaching and substantially preceded his transformation into an insect. For instance, immediately after waking up and realizing that he was no longer human, but as now a bug, Gregor begins to flashback on his life as a traveling salesman. In the reflection of his past, he began to reckon that his constant traveling had alienated him from those around him, making his relationship with others both transitory and superficial. He says, I have got the torture of travelling, worry about changing trains, eating miserable food at all hours, constantly seeing new faces, no relationships that last get more intimate (pg. 4). Besides, upon his metamorphosis, Gregor remembers how he initially had a sense of pride for being able to support his family. Nevertheless, this pride began to fade away immediately his parents began to expect that support from him. For these reasons, Gregor began to become both emotionally and physically alienated from his parents and friends.

In The Metamorphosis, Gregors is alienated in the mental psyche, which is rooted from the isolation that is rooted from his work, society and family. In this regard, Kafka points out that Gregors mental deterioration started way before his metamorphosis. Additionally, although his physical change is already elaborate at the beginning of the story, Gregor further undergoes numerous related changes and a psychological transformation, as he begins to adapt to his new body. Additionally, after his transformation Gregor loses his social abilities which leads to him being enslaved by his family. For instance, the sense of alienation is also well exemplified by the filth in Gregors room. This indicates that his family had completely lost hope in him since the manner in which they let filth accumulate in there is a symbol of alienating both the room and Gregor, as though nobody lived inside.

When contrasted, the development of this particular theme of alienation internally and also with the wider world in the two books brings about elaborate differences. For instance, in the Metamorphosis, Kafka particularly develops the theme of alienation through the life of the protagonist, Gregor, who undergoes various transformations which render him different from his own emotional self and also his surrounding world. In the short story In the Penal Colony, on the other hand, Kafka develops the theme by alienating the reader from being able to relate with the elaborate machine used for punishing the prisoners. This is in the sense that, at the beginning of the short story, Kafka uses the words It was a machine like no other as the opening lines of the short story. This statement essentially puts forward a cryptic and an insightful simile which immediately sets the mood of the story. Ironically, despite being used for a barbaric way of punishing the prisoners, Kafka, through the simile categorizes the machine as one that is different from every other known thing. In this state of anonymity, the device becomes automatically dissociated from the readers reality, making the leader feel alienated for not being able to relate to the machine.

Although elaborate the type of alienation in the penal colony is a representation of how the old commandant shuns the old and barbaric ways of life, which involved punishing of the prisoners using the machine. Before the alienation of the machine and the primitive ways of life, the people in the penal colony blindly conformed to the laws in a lawless, barbaric world. However, in the advent of the old Commandant, he establishes an irrational connection between his alleged crime and his punishment whereby he saw justice as an ideal punishment or having broken the law, in which case the officer serves only as his fanatic disciple (Kafka).

The kind of alienation that is depicted in the story In the Penal Colony brings about a sense of disassociation, precisely in terms of culture which when related to the modern day today, is seen as a prevalent theme in the contemporary day post-colonial world. Kafka, throughout the development of this short story, uses four men characters and a machine which all paint a vividly impactful image of the modern day society. This picture of the society, in turn, is deeply symbolic of the social, cultural as well as political alienation of the people which was overly rampant throughout the 19th century in the better part of the world. To a broader perspective, this is exemplified in this particular story where Kafka gives us a parable of what was considered old, versus the new law.

In conclusion, both the stories The Metamorphosis and In the Penal Colony, revolve around the main theme alienation both from self and the outside word. In the penal colony, the distance, or rather the alienation that is maintained by the explorer is a vague emissary of our humanist society since the explorer is overly perplexed by the conflict existing between judgement and action. In this case, the prisoner who, Kafka describes as one with a positivity similar to that of a dog and characterised by submissiveness, is isolated from individual freedom by the machine which is designed to punish him. On the other hand, Gregor, the protagonist of the story, The Metamorphosis is alienated from both his initial personality and the society when he undergoes transformation.

Works Cited

Kafka, Franz. Selected Short Stories of Franz Kafka- In the Penal Colony. The Modern Library, 1993, pp. 16-38.

Kafka, Franz. The Metamorphosis. Online source, 1915, pp. 1-36.